Journal of Rural Studies 32 (2013) 148e157

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Journal of Rural Studies

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Quiet sustainability: Fertile lessons from Europe’s productive

gardeners
Joe Smith*, Petr Jehli
cka
Dept. of Geography, The Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, United Kingdom

a b s t r a c t
Keywords: This paper investigates notable examples of sustainable lifestyles in relation to food systems. It explores
Quiet sustainability the surprisingly neglected case of widely practised and environmentally sustainable food self-
Sustainable development
provisioning in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. Our argument is rooted in qualitative and
Sharing
Consumption
quantitative data gathered over a seven-year period (2005e2011). The research considers the extent of
Domestic/household food production and motivations for these practices in Poland and Czechia. The very high rates compared to Western
Alternative food networks Europe and North America have generally been explained in terms of an ‘urban peasantry’ meeting
essential needs. After reviewing and rejecting those accounts we present evidence for these as socially
and environmentally beneficial practices, and explore how the motivations derive from a range of
feelings about food, quality, capability and family and/or friendship. Rather than relate these practices to
temporal signals of quality and sustainability in food (’slow’ and ’fast’), or presenting them as ’alternative
food networks’ we suggest that they represent ’quiet sustainability’. This novel concept summarises
widespread practices that result in beneficial environmental or social outcomes and that do not relate
directly or indirectly to market transactions, but are not represented by their practitioners as relating
directly to environmental or sustainability goals. These practices represent exuberant, appealing and
socially inclusive, but also unforced, forms of sustainability. This case further demonstrates the severe
limitations of decision makers’ focus on economics and behaviour change, and their neglect of other
dimensions of social life and change in developing environmental policies.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction sustainable development within international politics. The UN

Earth Summit of 1992 emphasised sustainable production and
Market and consumer perspectives have long dominated sus- consumption as key areas for attention. This is hardly surprising:
tainability research and policy in the field of food. By contrast, this the sustainable development idiom evolved in the context of the
paper considers long-standing forms of food self-provisioning (FSP, far-reaching dominance within mainstream politics of pro-
meaning growing and sharing one’s own food) that are extensively globalization/market liberalisation/pro-growth approaches to po-
practised, carry environmental and social benefits, yet are little litical economy (Richardson, 1997). Hence the end of state socialism
considered or acknowledged within sustainable food policy dis- in CEE and the prominence of discourses of sustainable develop-
courses or academic literatures. Empirically it focuses on food self- ment within international political debates through the course of
provisioning in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Our the 1990s were infused with market orthodoxies that framed policy
argument is rooted in qualitative and quantitative data gathered problems in terms of the challenges of market failures and of
over a period of seven years (2005e2011) on the extent and nature incomplete information amongst market actors (Bernstein, 2000).
of, and motivations for, these forms of food provisioning in Poland The agendas of the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development
and Czechia. It frames these practices in terms of the novel concept (WSSD) of 2002 and the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable
of ‘quiet sustainability’. Development (UN CSD, known as Rioþ20) further embedded the
The system changes in 1989e1990 that saw the end of state framing of sustainability almost exclusively in terms of a market
socialism in CEE and the initiation of what has widely been figured idiom (with sustainable production and consumption prominent
as a ‘transition’ coincided with a high-tide mark for discourses of themes of UN WSSD (UNEP) and greening the economy the most
prominent theme in the run up to the UN CSD).
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ44 1223 501465, þ44 7879056481. These prominent, often official, discourses tend to embed the
E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Smith). notion that social science insights are late-phase contributions to a

0743-0167/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2013.05.002
 J. Smith, P. Jehlicka / Journal of Rural Studies 32 (2013) 148e157 149

linear process of ‘analyse, diagnose, act’. They also tend to draw the presence of what appear to be longstanding sustainable prac-
exclusively on a very limited field of the social sciences. For tices that the practitioners themselves, and the research and policy
example Rockström, in a keynote speech to the UN sponsored community, have not recognised or valorised in those terms.
Planet Under Pressure conference (2012) suggests that the ‘great Whereas in Western Europe and North America the research
transition to a global sustainability’ requires ‘new integrated effort in this field has been invested in relatively sparse and
knowledge’, but his reference points in the social sciences are exceptional cases (such as Transition Towns and other community
exclusively, ‘behaviour change and a new economics of global initiatives, or the Slow Food movement) our interest is in wide-
environmental change’ (see also UK Science Minister’s speech on spread practices that appear to significantly reduce environmental
the same occasion: Willetts, 2012). impact, that are socially diverse and that seem also to bring com-
One of the consequences of such ‘official’ discursive turns is that munity benefits. Hence, where Seyfang describes grassroots sus-
a blind spot has emerged at almost all levels of sustainability tainability initiatives as ‘embodying alternatives’ (2011) and Davies
governance wherein sustainable practices evident at the meso level suggests that they ‘in terms of absolute numbers and size, represent
of the household (as discussed by Reid et al., 2010) and/or family a small sector’ (2012, 197), we find ourselves considering what it
and friendship networks have been given little or no prominence means that so many people in Poland and Czechia are pursuing
within formal processes, or indeed research agendas. Specifically, evidently sustainable food practices without feeling the need to
and in step with Reid et al., we believe that focussing on in- identify them as such. Our findings offer a very direct response to
teractions within and between households in relation to systems of Goodman et al.’s questions: ‘where are those projects that are
food self-provisioning is an important place to look for lessons outside of neoliberal subjectivities and the commodifications of
about how to preserve and/or progress towards a more sustainable ethics/morality?’ (2010, 1792).
society. Their paper proposes that the focus should be not just on
what sustainable practices are undertaken at the meso (household)
2. Food, sustainability and self-provisioning: beyond the
level, but also why they are undertaken (Reid et al., 2010, 324).
‘urban peasant’
Our intention is to see what can usefully be learnt about societal
transformation around food systems by looking at a context and set
Food systems are a prominent feature of policy and popular dis-
of practices that display ‘quiet sustainability’. This concept valorises
courses about progress towards sustainability. The impacts associ-
sustainable practices that are exuberant, appealing and socially
ated with production, distribution and consumption and waste have
inclusive and that may derive from diverse development paths. We
all been identified as requiring urgent attention in western societies
find it significant that the activities we consider in this paper are
(see, for example, Foresight, 2011). Agro-industrial efficiency has
not labelled or valued as examples of sustainable development and
long been seen within the food and agricultural sector as an
hence conclude that the research and policy community should
important component of sustainable food systems, and the
focus more closely on this and other instances of ‘quiet sustain-
emerging concept of sustainable intensification is extending the
ability’ (further defined in Section 4). Our evidence suggests that
reach of this notion. The UK Government’s Foresight report on the
these practices are already making significant contributions to
Future of Food and Farming, which was tasked with considering
environmental and social sustainability without explicitly seeking
future threats to the steady supply of food to British consumers,
to do so, but they may require some degree of protection and
strongly asserted in its general conclusions that ‘(f)ood security is
nurturing in future. The geographical setting for the study is the
best served by fair and fully functioning markets and not by policies
source of this rather different approach to researching sustain-
to promote self-sufficiency’ (2011,19). However in parallel there have
ability, and we view the work as contributing to the recent call to
been recent efforts aimed at the promotion of FSP as a comple-
‘open up; to reveal and give voice to marginalized narratives and so
mentary, and in some people’s eyes, alternative, form of sustainable
enable pathways which [.] take greater account of multiple di-
production and consumption. Amongst other things, this has taken
mensions of incomplete knowledge and of sustainability’ (Leach
the form of urban food movements (Veen et al., 2012) and the revival
et al., 2010, 96).
of allotment policies in developed countries. One prominent index is
As Mark Whitehead explains in his review of sustainability and
the initiation of productive gardens at the White House, Buckingham
post-socialism ‘a post-socialist perspective adds value to studies of
Palace and Downing Street in the second half of the 2000s.
sustainable development because it encourages us to think of the
Alber and Kohler’s (2008) Europe-wide study shows that, with a
varied socio-cultural traditions that notions of sustainability can
few exceptions, the proportion of the population in west European
animate, and the different trajectories sustainable development
countries growing their own food only rarely exceeds 10% (though
policies may actually be on.’ They also offer a chance to ‘recognize
we would value more recent comparative data in this area). By
that sustainable developments always reflect imperfect geograph-
contrast between 35 and 60% of the population in CEE countries
ical fixes’ (Whitehead, 2010, 1631). It is worth noting that we also
grow some of their own food. These practices have been ignored or
follow Caroline Humphrey (2002) and Alison Stenning (2005) in
met with disdain by the environmental policy community in the
viewing the labels post-socialism and transition as indicating not a
region. This is clearly represented in a 2000 Czech government
progression towards an endpoint, but rather a signalling of diverse
strategy document on rural development:
trajectories. Hence the prefix ‘post’ should be seen as an invitation
to look at social phenomena related to sustainability in a fresh light, Ineffective self-provisioning habits (eggs, poultry, potatoes,
and crucially, in our case a positive light. Along with Kay et al. we vegetables, fruit) hang over from the past, which contributes to
are convinced of ‘the possibilities of generating theory from within the relatively low purchasing power of the countryside
post-socialist studies’ (2012, 56, emphasis in the original). (Ministerstvo pro místní rozvoj a Ministerstvo zeme  de
lství
This inductive paper has developed through close attention to 2000, 18).
food self-provisioning and sharing practices. As such it is focused
Food self-provisioning, which provides households involved in
upon widespread ‘actually existing sustainabilities’ (Krueger and
this activity with a basic livelihood, can sometimes contribute to
Agyeman, 2005; Smith and Jehlicka, 2007) rather than their
decline and exclusion (ibid, 43).
absence or exceptional status. Our interest is not in the future
promise of transformations towards sustainability, or the projec- Such dismissive or purely instrumental framings of FSP in CEE
tion of system changes that allow sustainability. Rather we focus on are reflections of what Pasieka summarises as a ‘mainstream’
150 J. Smith, P. Jehlicka / Journal of Rural Studies 32 (2013) 148e157

position by, in the case of her study, the Polish policy elite (2012). virtual wall along the footpath. If a family did not own a garden plot
She summarises an internal ‘othering’ of peasantry and the past, themselves, they had access to one through relatives. Whether
and a postcolonial mentality in elites ‘detectable in their constant elaborate or bare bones, these private spaces were visited
discontent with their own society and simplistic internalization of frequently, to tend to vegetables, have a family cook-out, or throw a
Western ideas’ (73). Much research on FSP in CEE has also tended to small evening party. The garden was a sanctuary, if only for a few
frame these practices as backward, and contrasted them with days, that provided relief from the city and from the system (ibid.,
western modernity. FSP is read as an index of path dependency, an 34e35).
economic coping strategy or as a faintly embarrassing cultural Czegledy’s interpretation of Hungarian food self-provisioning
remnant. This perspective has developed over the course of more and sharing gives pleasure and commensality a more central role.
than a century of othering of Eastern Europe but has combined with The sharing of self-provisioned food and drink with guests and
a more recent western myth of the Russian ‘urban peasant’ (see, for friends offers an opportunity to appreciate the time, effort and
example, Clarke et al., 2000). Influential research in public policy, skills invested in growing and preparation. To share these goods is
development and economics (e.g. Rose and Tikhomirov, 1993; to enjoy a shared experience of qualities that shop-bought produce
Seeth et al., 1998; Alber and Kohler, 2008) paralleled and nour- cannot offer (2002, 213). Czegledy suggests that such practices help
ished the policy and consultancy trend to understand high rates of to affirm cultural identity in the face of fast-paced changes in post
FSP as a survival strategy of the poor. Alber and Kohler (2008) socialist economies (ibid., 214).
drawing on Rose and Tikhomirov’s work (1993) used a Europe- We propose that these practices have far wider significance in
wide survey of 27 countries to conclude that FSP was a coping pointing to some of the ways that sustainable practices might be
strategy with direct descent from the socialist past.1 valued and nurtured elsewhere. In order to explore these we have
Despite the dominance of economistic and Western framed and combined qualitative and quantitative techniques, and have
focused accounts of appropriate development paths, more cultur- invested in gathering time series and geographically plural data
ally informed approaches to understanding habits, practices and (two nations and a mix of urban, suburban and rural settings) but
identities around food have been undertaken. These have tended to without intending a strictly comparative approach.
be based upon qualitative research, mostly undertaken by social The work has been informed by scholarship from a range of
anthropologists. These less deterministic approaches are showing disciplines, including work in history and anthropology, indeed
results that contradict the previously accepted explanations, and previous findings coming out of our wider project have appeared
have offered a basis for our own research. variously in geography, environmental policy, history and statistics
Informal household economies including food self-provisioning publications. Here we seek to demonstrate the senses in which
and sharing of fruit and vegetables in CEE have drawn the attention these are sustainable practices and understand better how so many
of anthropological research both during (Gábor, 1979; Hann, 1980) people continue to engage in them. We feel that this mixed
and after the state socialist period (Sik, 1992; Skalník, 1993; methodology approach has been productive, and managed to sus-
Czegledy, 2002; Torsello, 2005; Acheson, 2007) and also of hu- tain a critical edge while directly engaging with and contributing to
man geographers (e.g. Smith, 2002; Smith and Stenning, 2006; policy discussions.
Smith and Rochovská, 2007; Shubin, 2010; Jehli cka and Smith,
2011; Jehlicka et al., 2012). Recurrent themes across the anthro- 3. Food self-provisioning as a sustainable practice: Czech and
pological work in particular include an interest in the balance of Polish evidence
altruism and self-interest, as well as the relationship between such
practices and attitudes to egalitarianism and some deeply rooted We combined qualitative and quantitative methods to explore a
moral norms. These include the stigmatisation of self-centredness series of questions about the degree to which food self-provisioning
and the promotion of mutual help and sharing. Torsello’s (2005) could be described as a sustainable practice. Researchers have
research conducted in a rural Slovak village showed how food stressed the hazards of unwittingly conflating certain spatial/
self-provisioning plays a role in creating and maintaining strong structural characteristics, such as those associated with local and
ties between kin members and friends by establishing mutuality, alternative food networks, and with environmentally or socially
reciprocity, task sharing and trust. In similar vein Snajdr’s (2008) desirable outcomes (DuPuis and Goodman, 2005; Tregear, 2011).
research into the relationship between Slovak city dwellers and Hence we have framed the methodology and explored the data
their access to gardens on the fringes of cities shows how, on these with the goal of revealing more about the environmental and social
tiny garden plots, which were often within sight of a factory or dimensions of FSP. Hence questionnaire and interview topics
along railroad tracks, they grew a variety of vegetables, fruits, and included the degree to which FSP is practised across social and
herbs [.] Most gardens included small domceky or chaty (cabins) demographic groups, the degree to which industrially produced
that were built by the owners. Gardens [.] were often quite fertilizers and pesticides are used, the kinds of transport required in
elaborate, with trestles supporting grape vines, or rows of slender attending to productive gardens and the degree of sharing that is
fruit trees so skilfully pruned that their curling branches formed a practised.
The findings presented in this paper are based on several sets of
data gathered in Czechia between 2005 and 2010 and in Poland in
1
Polish and Czech food self-provisioning, both in the form of food growing in 2011. In 2005 we commissioned the Czech polling agency CVVM
privately owned gardens and in allotments, predates the state socialist period. (Public Opinion Research Centre) to pose 13 questions formulated
Bellows (2004) describes how allotment gardening arrived in today’s Poland at the by us as a part of one of their regular national surveys. This first
turn of the twentieth century. In both countries allotment gardening, as well as the
Czech polling was conducted between 21 and 28 February 2005. It
historically more widespread food provisioning in private gardens, of the non-
farming population was encouraged by the authorities during the state socialist was a standard CVVM survey using the quota sampling method.
era. There were multiple reasons for the communist regimes’ support for FSP The agency worked with a panel of 241 interviewers who were
ranging from a stop-gap role in addressing the food insecurity problem in state- geographically spread throughout the country, including both ur-
controlled food distribution (particularly in Poland) to nutritional benefits of ban and rural locations. CVVM sent questionnaires to its 241 in-
fresh fruit and vegetables, healthy exercise and relaxation. In the post-socialist
period the importance of the food security and nutritional benefits of FSP largely
terviewers. Each of them conducted either four of five interviews
disappeared (Bellows, 2004). Yet, as this paper shows, the practice has continued, with respondents who met the criteria set by the agency so that the
albeit on a reduced scale than was the case in the pre-1989 era. resulting quota sample constituted a representative sample of the
 J. Smith, P. Jehlicka / Journal of Rural Studies 32 (2013) 148e157 151

Czech population. CVVM estimates that the response rate was be- whose sizes would reflect this diversity. Therefore, in 2005 five
tween 50 and 60% (in terms of the proportion of people who met interviews were conducted in the capital city Prague (over 1 million
the representativeness criteria and agreed to be interviewed out of inhabitants), five in the Hradec Králové-Pardubice agglomeration
the total number of people approached by interviewers). These (regional capitals with the combined population of nearly 200,000
cannot be expressed with greater precision on account of this inhabitants) and five in Poli cka (a rural town with population
sampling technique: it is not recorded how many people 9000). In 2010 four respondents were interviewed in Prague, four
approached by interviewers declined to be interviewed and/or did in a small town, Boskovice, (11,000 inhabitants) and two in a small
not meet the criteria (Vinopal, 2009a). The quota sample of CVVM village, Telecí (population 400). While we ourselves conducted the
respondents must match characteristics of the Czech population 2005 interviews (relying on our acquaintances living in the three
over the age of 15 established by the 2001 national census in terms locations to identify suitable respondents), in 2010 we hired a
of gender, age, educational level, employment, job, and geograph- consultant to select and interview respondents in November and
ical distribution of respondents, which are annually updated by the December. In 2011 we hired a consultant in Poland to do 10 in-
Czech Statistical Office. terviews (again relying for identification of suitable respondents on
To guarantee the representativeness of their polls, CVVM aims at her acquaintances and connections while meeting our request
receiving at least 1000 questionnaires filled in by respondents. concerning growers’ social diversity) asking identical questions to
Their long-term experience is that to receive back the minimum of those posed in 2010 in Czechia. The Polish interviews were con-
1000 questionnaires, the agency needs to send out between 1150 ducted between March and April 2011 in four locations. Three were
and 1170 questionnaires as there is normally some shortfall of conducted in the national capital Warsaw (1.7 million inhabitants),
returned questionnaires due to unforeseen circumstances (Vinopal, and the others were conducted in towns and a village in the north
2009b). In the case of our February 2005 survey the number of east of Poland: three in Ostróda (town with population 33,000), one
returned questionnaires was 1056 out of 1150 sent out to the in- in Szczytno (population 25,000) and three in Pietrzwa1d (village
terviewers. The questions covered a broad range of topics related to with 250 inhabitants).
food consumption including where respondents purchase food, While these interviewees were not derived from a process of
whether they grow their own fruit and vegetables, the percentage representative sampling, we aimed at the widest possible range of
of specific types of fruits and vegetables consumed in their respondents in terms of age, income, educational level and
households accounted for by their own production and motivations employment. People with a diversity of backgrounds including the
for growing their food. unemployed, pensioners, business people and a professional
In 2010 we commissioned CVVM to carry out a shorter (6 musician were selected for these interviews. All interviewees were
questions) follow-up survey focused on the social and environ- from the ethnic majority groups e white Czechs and Poles.
mental sustainability dimensions of FSP in Czechia.2 The re- It is worth pausing to explain our choice of national contexts
spondents were asked to provide information about the for the research. Our initial 2005 research in Czechia yielded some
motivations for growing food and about the ways they grow food, really unexpected, and from the sustainability point of view,
including what types of fertilisers and pesticides they use and how important, findings. To establish whether they were country-
they travel to their gardens. Other questions aimed at establishing specific and applied to a relatively small country, or whether they
the extent of sharing of their harvest: whether e and with whom had a wider currency, we decided to extend our empirical research
they share part of their produce, and what proportion of their to another and much larger post-socialist country e Poland. Despite
harvest they give away. CVVM gathered the data in the same way similar recent histories the two neighbouring countries display
(the quota sampling method) as in 2005, except that in this case the considerable diversity in terms of some basic characteristics related
company sent out 1170 questionnaires out of which 1024 were to agriculture and food and the urban/rural structure of population.
returned. The polling was conducted between 30 August and 6 Czechia industrialised extensively in the nineteenth century and
September 2010. its farming and land uses reflect that industrialisation and conse-
Seven months later, the Polish polling agency CBOS (Public quent urbanisation and agricultural intensification as well as the
Opinion Research Center) conducted the same six-question survey legacy of collectivised agriculture during the socialist period. To-
for us in Poland, following the same technique of data gathering as day’s Czechia, with its population of 10 million, has only 23,000
CVVM. The polling took place between 6 and 13 April 2011. The agricultural holdings with an average area of 152 ha per farm (by far
number of returned questionnaires was slightly higher than in the the largest average farm size in the EU; Eurostat, 2011). Poland’s
Czech case e1192. industrialisation took place in the twentieth century. The structure
To uncover motivations, causalities and explanations for of Polish agriculture differs from the Czech one: the average size of
behaviour identified by these quantitative surveys we conducted or 1,506,000 holdings is 10 ha. Both countries are urbanised e
commissioned two rounds of in-depth semi-structured interviews although Poland has a higher proportion of rural population (39%)
in Czech households and one round of interviews in Poland; 35 than Czechia (24%). Despite these significant historical and current
interviews in total. The duration of the interviews ranged from 40 differences in social and economic development, the results of the
to 120 min. In Czechia we conducted 15 interviews between March Polish FSP survey mostly confirmed our findings from Czechia. It is
and May 2005 and 10 interviews with a different set of respondents important to state that we did not intend this to be understood as a
and partly in different locations in November and December 2010. comparative study. We also chose these countries as case studies on
As we knew from the quantitative surveys that food self- account of language and research competencies within the team
provisioning was common in both rural and urban areas, on both and its collaborators. While we did not seek formal comparison, we
occasions we decided to select interviewees in three locations were concerned to gather data from more than one post socialist
CEE country and from a range of settings (large urban; town; rural).
We are planning in future work to expand our research and col-
laborations to cover other European countries, both with similar
2
The focus and extent of the CVVM 2010 follow-up survey were a result of a and different recent histories to the two in which we have been
compromise. This compromise was determined by the fact that our interest had
been ignited by the results of the 2005 survey in relation to the strong sustain-
working so far. We are also interested in expanding the range of
ability potential of FSP, yet the reach of the survey was necessarily limited by the methods applied, including the use of food and garden diaries, in
size of our research budget. order to enrich certain elements of the data.
152 J. Smith, P. Jehlicka / Journal of Rural Studies 32 (2013) 148e157

3.1. Social diversity Table 2

Percentages engaged in food self-provisioning in Poland by age.

The data on living standards and income levels helps us un- Age group Proportion of the age
derstand who is growing this food and why. We wanted to pursue group involved in FSP
these questions for four reasons: to gain data that would help to 18e29 55%
interrogate the ‘survival strategy of the poor’ claims in some of the 30e4 53%
existing literature; to consider the potential persistence of FSP into 45e59 59%
60þ 56%
the future; to help assess the potential for the encouragement of
FSP beyond post-socialist Europe and finally, to assess the degree to
which these practices achieved both social and environmental
sustainability goals in an integrated manner. growers does not relate to age (it is the same for all age groups), for
In contrast to the dominant framing of these practices it is men the percentage increases with age (62% of men over 60 grow
economically secure rather than insecure households who are pre- food).
dominantly growing their own food, although the differences are For several reasons, the cross-generational popularity of FSP
relatively small. For instance, in the Czech case, 48% of respondents strikes us as a significant finding, although this is an area that in-
who indicated in 2010 that the living standard of their households vites further research. The questions raised by this balanced cross-
was “good” (44% in 2005) are self-provisioning, whereas the per- generational take up of FSP that require further exploration in
centage of respondents from households whose living standard was future research include: does this aspect increase the likelihood of
“neither good, nor bad” and from households with a poor/“bad” FSP as a stable and persistent everyday activity that will be prac-
living standard were 43 and 33% (42 and 35% in 2005). Similarly, tised into the future on account of intergenerational sharing of
amongst the most affluent quartile (according to household income skills and competencies, and to what degree does it provide a
declared by respondents) in the 2010 data 41% were self- platform for inter-generational cooperation, communication,
provisioners and in the second highest quartile the figure was 46%. sharing and skill and trust building and hence a basis for greater
In the lowest quartile, the rate of self-provisioning was 32% and in the social sustainability?
second lowest it was 43%. Table 1 shows that in the second half of the Regional differences are more marked in the Polish case, with
2000s more than 40% of Czech households were growing food to eat. more growers in South Eastern Poland (Lubelskie wojewodztwo:
Sources: 1991: Rose and Tikhomirov (1993); 2003: Alber and 80%) than in northern Poland (Warminsko-mazurskie: 38%). There
Kohler (2008) (our reading of the chart in the article); 2005 and is also a more marked difference between urban and rural FSP rates,
2010: National surveys commissioned by us; 2009: National survey with rural participation running at 74%, and urban ranging from
conducted by Median Agency. 36% (towns and cities with population between 50,000 and
Despite the fact that the poorest in Czech society appear to be 999,999) to 43% (towns with population between 2000 and
growing less, the fact that around a third of the lowest quartile are self- 49,999). There appears to be little or no correlation between
provisioning demonstrates that this remains a socially inclusive ac- educational attainment and rates of FSP: amongst those with a
tivity in both of the countries we have studied. This also applies to basic education FSP is practised by 58%, those holding apprentice-
educational levels: respondents with the lowest (9 years of school ships 53%, with secondary education 51% and amongst those with
attendance up until the age of 15) and with the highest (university university (tertiary) education rates are 5%. To illustrate this point,
degree) educational level were equally likely to grow their food e 35% in rural villages our data found that 73% of people with a basic
of these respondents declared in 2005 that they did so. The percent- education, 71% of people with apprenticeships, 75% people with
ages of respondents with secondary education - without and with secondary education and 79% of graduates grow food. In terms of
maturita (the school leaving examination usually taken at the age of employment: 52% of students, 54% of pensioners; 61% of house-
18) e growing their food were also similar: 45 and 44% respectively. wives; 58% of CEOs (but note only 24 in the sample in total), 56% of
There is also fairly even distribution of the practice across urban and professionals (doctors, teachers, lawyers); 46% of self-employed
rural areas: of the respondents, high rates of self-provisioning are not and entrepreneurs; 53% of skilled and non-skilled manual
only in villages (65% of our 2005 respondents living in settlements workers and 49% of the unemployed grow their own food.
with less than 2000 inhabitants grew their food) but also in mid-sized In the Polish 2010 survey the bigger the household the greater
towns (41%). Even in the capital Prague 21% of the population grows the percentage of growers: in one-member households the rate
some of their food. We know from the qualitative research that some was 32%, in four-member households it was 59% and in bigger
households do not grow food in their primary dwelling, but rather in households 63%. In terms of income per capita in a household, there
gardens at their recreational cabins and cottages. is an inverse relationship between the proportion of growers and
The Polish questionnaire of 2011 was not directly comparable, economic situation. Dividing the population into five income
but showed that 54% use a garden, field or orchard to grow food, brackets the figures,3 in ascending order of income are: 57%; 61%;
with both men and women participating in almost equal pro- 56%; 54% and 49%.
portions. Polish FSP is not statistically related to age (see Table 2). The evidence supports the conclusion that this is a socially
The mean age of people growing their food is 46 years, the mean widely distributed practice. We note that the lowest income groups
age of those who do not is 46 years. For women the percentage of in these societies are less likely to be practising self-provisioning.
Further work would be needed to clarify why this is, but as
Table 1 things stand we assume that this relates primarily to access to land
Percentages of respondents growing some of their own food in Czechia. and also to considerations of time and the historically low prices of
Country 1991 2003 2005 2009 2010 supermarket goods. Our argument is not that a particular rate of
Czechia (Czechoslovakiaa) 70%a 30% 42% 43% 43%
a
Data gathered when present day Czech Republic/Czechia was a part of
3
Czechoslovakia. The monthly income brackets were: up to 500 z1oty (up to 120 euros); 501e750
Sources: 1991: Rose and Tikhomirov (1993); 2003: Alber and Kohler (2008) (our z1oty (120e182 euros); 751e1000 z1oty (182e243 zloty); 1001e1500 z1oty (243e
reading of the chart in the article); 2005 and 2010: National surveys commissioned 364 euros) and more than 1500 z1oty (more than 364 euros). The size of income
by us; 2009: National survey conducted by Median Agency. brackets was comparable as they ranged from 134 to 209 respondents.
 J. Smith, P. Jehlicka / Journal of Rural Studies 32 (2013) 148e157 153

Table 3 Table 4
The average proportions of self-grown produce in the total growers’ household Usage of fertilisers by type.
consumption as reported by respondents to the February 2005 Czech national
survey. Fertilisers Czechia 2010 (%) Poland 2011 (%)

Only natural fertilisers 54 51

Fruit or vegetable Percentage Fruit or vegetable Percentage
No fertilisers 15 25
Currants 73 Carrots 52 Both natural and industrial 28 19
Strawberries 68 Plums 49 fertilisers
Apples 62 Onions 44 Only industrial fertilisers 3 5
Cherries 55 Potatoes 44
Tomatoes 53 Pears 41

or natural fertilisers with a limited amount of industrially produced

FSP is or isn’t socially inclusive, but rather that the relatively even fertilisers for specific purposes:
percentage of it across all social groups is notable, and reflects the
Well, we have enough sheep and rabbit manure. Just last week I
fact that this is a socially inclusive practice.
spread manure with a wheelbarrow. Each year I try to spread
half a wheelbarrow load of manure to each tree. I don’t use
3.2. Reduced environmental impacts chemical fertilisers at all. (Interview, Telecí, Cz, 20/11/2010)

To be able to judge the environmental significance of FSP it is I used to use horse or cattle manure which I bought from private
important to have a sense of quantities of food produced and farmers. I still fertilise tomatoes with horse manure. (I use
consumed within this set of practices. In the 2005 Czech survey the industrially made fertilisers) only a tiny bit. Fruit trees I fertilise
respondents were asked to estimate the proportion of self-grown with a little bit of Celerit, but not for anything else. (Interview,
produce in their households’ total consumption of ten selected Boskovice, Cz, 20/11/2010a)
fruits and vegetables. The results confirmed high levels of self- The qualitative research confirmed and extended these findings:
sufficiency in these ten types of fruits and vegetables (Table 3).
Ten Czech respondents interviewed in 2010 and ten Polish re- But from the beginning there was this desire to grow something
spondents interviewed in 2011 were asked to estimate the degree of your own, a sort of interior longing of inhabitants of big cities,
of self-sufficiency in the same ten types of fruits and vegetables. to have your own vegetables. And I also think there was already
The results of the interviews broadly confirmed the 2005 Czech a trend for ecological food, there were still shops with healthy
findings: according to the Czech interviewees, between 20% (on- food then, it wasn’t like the current eco-bio nomenclature, but
ions) and 80% (currants) of their household consumption were you would just say healthy food. Plus it was a bit of an experi-
accounted for by their own production. In Poland in 2011, the ment, and as it happened after the first year it worked really
average degree of growers’ self-sufficiency ranged from 20% well, because we absolutely didn’t use any fertiliser. (Interview,
(cherries) to 69% (currants). In both countries, the average aggre- Warszawa, Pl, 12/4/2011)
gate degree of self-sufficiency across the ten types of fruits and We use almost no chemicals. We fertilise the garden with rabbit
vegetables reported by interviewees was just over 50%. manure. And we hoe up weeds: for that we don’t use any
The findings of the periodical survey of the selected 3000 chemicals. (Interview, Policka, Cz, 4/4/2005)
households’ budgets by the Czech Statistical Office corroborate our
discoveries.4 One category of data the Office gathers is “consump- The reason why we grow our own food is that we do not use any
tion in kind” e i.e. consumption of food that is not purchased but sprays. Yes, the fruit is spotty: it certainly doesn’t look like the
obtained either by self-provisioning, as a gift or by foraging. In fruit in shops. We are now running out of our own apples, so I
2007, consumption in kind accounted for 34% of the overall con- wanted to buy some on the shop but my husband said: “Don’t
sumption of fresh fruits in Czech households, 32% of eggs, 27% of buy those chemical balls”. (Interview, Ste 
zery, Cz, 29/3/2005b)

potatoes and 22% of fresh vegetables (Stiková et al., 2009). Hence Assaying the precise environmental benefits of FSP is difficult
FSP accounts for significant volumes of selected foodstuffs from interpretation of our quantitative and qualitative interview
consumed in Czech households. Environmental benefits related to data alone. A much fuller picture would emerge from physical
the high volumes of self-provisioned food need to be considered in measures such as soil sampling (over-dosing is far more common in
relation to the way this food is produced. We knew from both the domestic as opposed to commercial growing), and further quali-
2005 survey and the in-depth interviews that most growers valued tative techniques such as household gardening and food diaries.
chemical-free cultivation (hence the emphasis on healthy food). Nevertheless the self-reporting of the interviewees indicates that
Our 2010 (Czechia) and 2011 (Poland) surveys addressed these around half use no industrial pesticides, and of those using them, a
environmental dimensions directly. The results confirmed that in large majority use both natural and industrial material.
terms of fertiliser and pesticide inputs and in terms of transport A separate feature of the environmental performance of FSP that
energy intensity in production and sharing, FSP appears to greatly we had not explored in our 2005 data gathering was the degree and
reduce the environmental impact of the food system (see Tables 4 nature of transport use in association with these practices. The
and 5). It is worth noting however that some aspects of these fig-
ures need to be approached cautiously, and invite further research.
Table 5
For example the transport modes used in FSP, or percentages of
Usage of pesticides by type.
fruit and vegetables grown and consumed, do not necessarily imply
reduced supermarket-generated travel. Use of pesticides Czechia 2010 (%) Poland 2011 (%)
The majority of Czech and Polish respondents to the 2005, 2010 No method 22 28
and 2011 interviews emphasised the use of only natural fertilisers Only natural or manual 26 25
forms of pesticides
Both natural and industrial 43 32
pesticides
4
These households are a representative sample of the Czech population. They Only industrial 8 15
include both households which grow their food and those which do not.
154 J. Smith, P. Jehlicka / Journal of Rural Studies 32 (2013) 148e157

2010/11 surveys showed only modest motorised transport use pleased to get apples for free. I do not need to profit from
associated with FSP (see Table 6). this.(Interview, Boskovice, Cz, 20/11/2010)
The quantitative data point to substantial environmental ben-
We don’t buy pears e the family helps each other. We get pears.
efits in terms of reduced chemical and fossil fuel based inputs, as
And sour cherries we get from our neighbour’s garden, so
well as reduced transport associated with the food system. The
although we don’t have our own, we do not buy them. [Ex-
Polish case in particular also highlights an additional health benefit
changes are not organised], it’s quite random, when something
of FSP in the form of a significant minority of growers walking and
ripens and becomes available, when people have enough of it, so
cycling to their plots (see Table 6). These findings were consistent
they give each other a ring. (Interview, Boskovice, Cz, 21/11/
with and/or reinforced by the qualitative interviews. However we
2010)
plan future data gathering to continue the time series, and at that
point would explore ways of looking in more detail at these aspects. Food sharing is motivated by a complex mixture of motivations
We believe that garden and kitchen diaries (recording accessing; that include the desire to help and please other people. Altruistic
growing; processing; cooking and waste management, as well as reasons are enmeshed with other motives such as stigmatisation of
notes on sharing of tools, seed, skills and produce) would provide a waste and pride in one’s skills and achievements as the following
rich resource to complement or test the other sources of data. quotation illustrates:
There’s a kind of feeling that it shouldn’t go to waste, and there
3.3. Reducing waste and building bonds
really is a lot of some of this stuff. And indeed there is a sort of
exchange. it is also a sort of feeling of pride from something
In terms of environmental sustainability the barter or gifting of
you have grown to share it with someone. (Interview, Wars-
self-provisioned food serves as a way of distributing surplus pro-
zawa, Pl, 12/4/2011)
duction which might otherwise go to waste. The Czech household
interviews from 2005 established that there was a lot of sharing The four quotes above also illustrate the quotidian and routine,
and gifting going on and we worked to explore this theme further yet also spontaneous nature of food sharing. Although we need to
within the 2010/11 data. These practices are going on through be cautious in our interpretation of the quantitative data it does
family and friendship networks in large cities as much as rural areas suggest that in total 60% of Czech growers and 45% of Polish
and also transcend the rural/urban divide. Furthermore both urban growers give away some of their produce (see Table 7). Further-
and rural dwellers forage for e.g. wild berries (for example bil- more we know from the qualitative data that many people do not
berries and alpine strawberries) and mushrooms. According to the consider sharing their produce with the family (daughters for
Ministry of Agriculture’s 2011 data, an average Czech household example) to be sharing.
foraged 11.14 kg of forest products including 7.13 kg of mushrooms These findings confirm Acheson’s (2007) research in eastern
and over 3 kg of various wildberries with the total annual harvest Slovakia (undertaken in 1993 and 2006). Although these networks
amounting to 46,000 tonnes (iDNES, 2012). When explaining the around growing and sharing were well established during the state
role of foraging, self-provisioning, allotments or smallholdings, socialist period (Torsello, 2005), they pre-existed state socialism
people emphasised that these practices “help to sustain dense webs (Acheson, 2007).
of connection between the rural and urban in ways that are now The perishability of much produce offers at least part of the
comparatively rare in Western Europe” (Jehli cka and Smith, 2011, reason for the high levels of sharing, but not all. Acheson’s Slova-
367, confirming Stenning, 2005, 122e123). kian research (ibid.) showed that exchanges were not confined to
Only one respondent out of 15 household interviews conducted self-provisioned food, but that they also involved goods purchased
in Czechia in 2005 was not involved in networks of food exchange. in shops or commodities to which they have special access. People
The exchanges are not restricted to extended families: neighbours, also exchanged labour, for example when building a house. The
friends and co-workers frequently participate. The 2010/11 in- same practices were revealed in our 2005 interviews. The sharing
terviews gave us a chance to probe the extent and meaning of and exchanging of food, and other commodities and services may
sharing and gifting further and highlighted the informality of many be rooted in shared but implicit norms around egalitarianism and
of these interactions: the negative perceptions of selfishness and self-centredness. We
When you have, you give. (Interview, Dolánky, Cz, 12/11/2010) sense that folded into these generous ways of thinking and acting
there are important lessons about the practice of powerful but quiet
We don’t have cherries, but we don’t buy them. We usually get
forms of sustainability.
them from friends. We don’t have plums either, but I almost
never buy them. I get them from friends. When I have a surplus
4. Quiet sustainability: quality, generosity and unintended
of, say lettuce, I give it to the (extended) family, to my female
environmental benefits
colleagues at work (altogether 15%) and a small part (5%) for sale
in the shop of the Gardeners’ Union. It is not a (formalised)
One of the reasons we consider FSP in CEE to be important is
exchange. It depends on what people have, and they simply
precisely the fact that practitioners of food self-provisioning do not
suggest in a conversation - “would you be interested?”. Why
tend to identify environment or sustainability concerns as signifi-
don’t I sell all the surplus? I have friends who I know will be
cant reasons for pursuing these practices. In Poland in 2011, “by

Table 6 Table 7
Transport modes used to access gardens/plots. Extent of food given away.

Transport to garden/plot Czechia 2010 (%) Poland 2011 (%) Extent of food Czechia 2010 (% from Poland 2011 (%from
given away those who grow food.) those who grow food)
Garden by the house where 65 54
people live e no travel No food given away 40 55
Walking 10 26 Less than 1/10 26 17
Cycling 4 5 1/10e1/4 20 20
Public transport 6 1 1/4e1/2 10 5
Private car/motorbike 15 13 More than 1/2 4 3
 J. Smith, P. Jehlicka / Journal of Rural Studies 32 (2013) 148e157 155

growing food with little impact on the environment I contribute to to challenge or mimic economic institutions. This may go some way
its protection” ranked as the 9th reason out of 9 options from which towards explaining why FSP in CEE has received so little attention
the respondents were asked to choose and in Czechia in 2010 it from those scholars and activists who seek examples of sustainable
ranked as the 8th reason in terms of reasons identified by re- food politics and ethics that do not “contribute to the production of
spondents questioned about their main motivations for self- neoliberal subjectivities” (Guthman, 2008, 1181).
provisioning. The value, power and reach of these practices seem to lie pre-
It is for these reasons that our empirical research has led us to cisely in the fact that they allow parallel and overlapping narratives
develop the concept of quiet sustainability. Quiet sustainability is about families, networks, competencies and relations with nature.
defined by practices that result in beneficial environmental or so- They are not a replacement or an alternative to the market economy
cial outcomes, that do not relate directly or indirectly to market of food, or a response to its environmental or social failings, but
transactions, and that are not represented by the practitioners as rather a vivid demonstration that that is only part of life. For one
relating directly to environmental or sustainability goals. Cultures Polish respondent the contrast between CEE experiences of food
of sharing, repairing, gifting and bartering characterise quiet sus- provisioning and those in the West was marked by a failure of those
tainability. Everyday practices that have low environmental im- from the West (in this case the US) to understand these non-market
pacts, but that have not been pursued for that reason, are also motivations:
features of the concept.
I’ll tell you an interesting story.what year was it? Maybe ’70,
In all of the quantitative surveys in 2005, 2010 and 2011, and
’80-something ’85 or ’86. Our friends had these visitors and
also the respondents in the in-depth interviews emphasis is
they came to our allotment, and at the time the whole allotment
consistently placed on fresh and “healthy food” (Table 8). Qualita-
was cultivated. And this guy came along, he was from the States,
tive interviews suggest that for many this means primarily food
and he asks “what are you doing all this for?” and I say, “to eat
grown with no or limited use of pesticides and other industrially
well”. Because for him it wasn’t worth it if he could buy vege-
produced chemicals and which contain, as a result, the least
tables for a week for a dollar and a half or two, it’s not worth the
possible residua of industrially produced chemicals. While this
effort. you could say that for us it started to be a similar situ-
motivation is relevant to an assessment of environmental impact
ation. But what do we eat then? Just chemicals and other stuff.
that is not the stated purpose: the qualitative interviews showed
(Interview, Ostróda, Pl, 26/3/2011)
that their concern is with the state and quality of the food rather
than the environmental impact of the food system per se: In our view FSP in CEE is not simply an example of an alternative
food network, in the sense of being a response to the contemporary
We use no chemicals (i.e. neither fertilisers not pesticides). For
agri-industrial food system. Indeed it implicitly asks provocative
health reasons, so that we prevent transfer of chemicals into our
questions of that framing of food research agendas (for example
organism (meaning human body) via the food chain; so, (we
Renting et al., 2003), and adds a further extension to the already
grow our own food) for this reason. (Interview, Boskovice, Cz,
demanding interdisciplinary research tasks relating to multifunc-
20/11/2010b)
tional agriculture outlined in Renting et al. (2009).
This research characterises Czech and Polish household food
production as primarily a voluntary activity imbued with deep 5. Conclusion: ‘can you take a cutting?’
social and cultural meanings and associated with feelings of
exuberance, joy and a sense of achievement rather than with The UN system now enters its fourth decade of deliberation in
constraints, necessity or a sense of obligation. Self-grown food al- the search for a rapprochement between environment, society and
lows the grower and consumer to experience the skill of the grower economy. One of the dominant framing devices, indeed the main
and the quality of their produce: means by which that circle is squared in international policy con-
texts, is the notion of sustainable development (WCED, 1987). We
I have about 40 tomato bushes. These enormous raspberry-red
propose that at least some of the policy and political energy that is
ones and these enormous yellow ones are my favourite vari-
put into these processes is diverted into acknowledging, protecting
eties. When the tomatoes are finished, for I keep them for quite a
and promoting practices that are sustainable in outcome, but don’t
long time, I store the green ones under blankets and more than
seek or claim to be, and that happen apart from, sometimes in spite
once they have lasted until December. They are amazing, you
of, the economic sphere.
can’t compare the taste with those of shop- bought tomatoes.
Quiet sustainability is practised all over the planet in a range of
The bought one looks like a tomato, but you have no idea what it
everyday practices that are most frequently followed in both post-
is. (Interview, Warszawa, Pl, 18/4/2011)
socialist societies and the global South. Importantly they contribute
The quiet sustainability of Europe’s food self-provisioners, and to making societies more resilient to unsettling ecological and so-
the extensive networks of sharing that spur from their work is not a cial changes but require no state funding and little in the way of
programme to be implemented, a future ambition for society or an market exchanges. Some cultures of sharing, repairing, gifting and
exceptional contrast to the norm. Rather it is a quiet but purposeful bartering that characterise quiet sustainability may, as with prac-
parallel to the market economy of food. It inhabits family and tices around food self-provisioning in Poland and Czechia, prove to
friendship, work and neighbourhood networks, rather than seeking be robust in the face of dramatic social and economic changes.
Others, however, may be more delicate and require recognition,
nurturing and a degree of protection. This nurturing and protection
Table 8
of quiet sustainability in such key fields such as transport, food
Reasons or motivations for FSP.
or energy use will often imply local, national or regional state ac-
Reason/year Czechia 2005 Czechia 2010 Poland 2011 tion, if not spending. This will take forms such as planning controls,
1st reason Fresh food Fresh food Healthy food and the diversion of investment from one form of land use or
2nd reason Hobby Hobby Fresh food infrastructure to another (e.g. gardening spaces protected or
3rd reason Financial saving Healthy food Financial saving introduced in place of or as part of, retail, office or housing de-
4th reason Pleasure from Financial saving Hobby
growing food
velopments; walking and cycling provision in place or as part of
road developments).
156 J. Smith, P. Jehlicka / Journal of Rural Studies 32 (2013) 148e157

The balance for policy communities to strike here is delicate if it were presented at the conference “Consumer Culture: between
seeks to intervene in outcomes at the meso-level. Specifically in aesthetics, social division and ecological activism” held at Palacký
relation to food policy, FSP in CEE may in part be so extensive across University, Olomouc, Czech Republic, 7e9 October 2010, at the 24th
time and across social groups precisely because it represents a Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology held in
sphere of life that is wilfully independent of states and markets. MAICh, Chania, Greece, 22e25 August 2011, at the Royal
However there are supportive measures that can underpin and Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers annual con-
allow expansion of these practices. These might include: planning ference in London, 31 August e 2 September 2011 and at the
policies that protect and promote spaces for productive gardening; “Agriculture in an Urbanizing Society” conference held in Wage-
taxation relief on productive gardening equipment and seed and ningen, Netherlands, 1e4 April 2012 and the XIII World Congress of
positive media and policy representations of these practices Rural Sociology held in Lisbon, Portugal, 29 July-4 August 2012. The
by influential public figures. More radical steps would include authors wish to thank participants for their comments. We are also
consideration of the relationship between economies of time within very grateful for the great care and attention offered by the editor
households and communities and the extent to which FSP can be and reviewers. They have greatly improved this paper.
sustained. That may lead to debate of the length of the working week
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